Aristotle taught, “For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.”
I love working in places where the answer isn't clear and the path not specifically drawn and where there is an opportunity to grow personally. I love being around smart people. I can’t say exactly what I am trained to do. I love numbers and data. I love to write. I love my family. I love to compete. I am CEO and a co-founder of Know More Media.
I include the following books that I read this year as some of my all-time favorites – Freakonomics and Blink. Both were recommended to me by friends. I think Lewis and Clark and their expedition are a great analog to starting a technology business. I look forward to the celebration the 200 year anniversary of their expedition in 2006.
While my career started on Wall Street, I have been an executive or investor in various start-ups for the past several years. Technology and the Internet have been my fascination from a business standpoint. After surviving the tech slide of 2000, I thought I would see what life was like in a small industrial company. While I learned a fair amount of the application of physics and chemistry, this experience convinced me that I missed the volatility (and tremendous opportunity) and dynamic nature of leading a technology company.
I found my way back to working in technology with the help of Tim Stay, with whom I had worked to build freeservers.com into a top player in the web hosting industry. Freeservers became North Sky, Inc and from 1998 to 2000, I was President and CEO of this Internet community that grew to become a top 50 web site. We were eventually acquired by About, Inc. Tim is also a founder of Know More Media.
I spent some time as a founding partner at venture capital firms Aspen Grove Ventures and at BizCradle where I joined Tim. BizCradle funded HumanLink, an early social media company that did not have the revenue to make it. These were short–lived experiences due to detoriating market conditions in 2000-2001 but valuable nevertheless.
Prior to NorthSky, I was CFO and a Director at Inari, Inc., a provider of home networking products that operated over the power lines (eventually acquired by Thomson). It was pioneering technology that had been initially developed by Novell. I think we were too early and definitively undercapitalized to be a part of digital transmission such as broadband over power lines.
As noted, I started my career as an investment banker. I developed expertise in building value in companies, raising capital and advising buyers and sellers. It was extremely valuable experience but after seven years I wanted to see a business up close - not from 30,000 feet. I worked for Furman Selz in San Francisco, Paine Webber in Los Angeles and Kidder Peabody in New York where I started in 1990, coincidently the same day Iraq invaded Kuwait. The markets shut down until that conflict was resolved so it was an interesting start.
I received an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of Utah. I am Chairman of the Brea Education Foundation and serve on the Executive Board of the Orange County Management Association. I also attend more than a fair share of youth sports games and often find myself coaching. Through all these experiences, I have met many wonderful people. This has been the most meaningful aspect of my career. Oh and my name…yeah, my Mom still thinks it was genius.
I love working in places where the answer isn't clear and the path not specifically drawn and where there is an opportunity to grow personally. I love being around smart people. I can’t say exactly what I am trained to do. I love numbers and data. I love to write. I love my family. I love to compete. I am CEO and a co-founder of Know More Media.
I include the following books that I read this year as some of my all-time favorites – Freakonomics and Blink. Both were recommended to me by friends. I think Lewis and Clark and their expedition are a great analog to starting a technology business. I look forward to the celebration the 200 year anniversary of their expedition in 2006.
While my career started on Wall Street, I have been an executive or investor in various start-ups for the past several years. Technology and the Internet have been my fascination from a business standpoint. After surviving the tech slide of 2000, I thought I would see what life was like in a small industrial company. While I learned a fair amount of the application of physics and chemistry, this experience convinced me that I missed the volatility (and tremendous opportunity) and dynamic nature of leading a technology company.
I found my way back to working in technology with the help of Tim Stay, with whom I had worked to build freeservers.com into a top player in the web hosting industry. Freeservers became North Sky, Inc and from 1998 to 2000, I was President and CEO of this Internet community that grew to become a top 50 web site. We were eventually acquired by About, Inc. Tim is also a founder of Know More Media.
I spent some time as a founding partner at venture capital firms Aspen Grove Ventures and at BizCradle where I joined Tim. BizCradle funded HumanLink, an early social media company that did not have the revenue to make it. These were short–lived experiences due to detoriating market conditions in 2000-2001 but valuable nevertheless.
Prior to NorthSky, I was CFO and a Director at Inari, Inc., a provider of home networking products that operated over the power lines (eventually acquired by Thomson). It was pioneering technology that had been initially developed by Novell. I think we were too early and definitively undercapitalized to be a part of digital transmission such as broadband over power lines.
As noted, I started my career as an investment banker. I developed expertise in building value in companies, raising capital and advising buyers and sellers. It was extremely valuable experience but after seven years I wanted to see a business up close - not from 30,000 feet. I worked for Furman Selz in San Francisco, Paine Webber in Los Angeles and Kidder Peabody in New York where I started in 1990, coincidently the same day Iraq invaded Kuwait. The markets shut down until that conflict was resolved so it was an interesting start.
I received an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of Utah. I am Chairman of the Brea Education Foundation and serve on the Executive Board of the Orange County Management Association. I also attend more than a fair share of youth sports games and often find myself coaching. Through all these experiences, I have met many wonderful people. This has been the most meaningful aspect of my career. Oh and my name…yeah, my Mom still thinks it was genius.
Posted by: Matt | December 17, 2005 9:49 AM | Permalink to Comment